Demons
by chosenofmarkov
Summary: One-shot written for the Tales From the Multiverse song prompt. After the Cursemute sweeps through Innistrad, Thalia searches for her best friend, who was bitten by a werewolf many moons ago. Set in my Breaking the Bonds universe. Thalia/OC


_Hi guys! This is my newest entry for the Tales From the Multiverse blog over on Tumblr; if you are a MTG fan and you aren't a a part of it already, you need to be! The prompt this time around was songs, and I chose "Demons" by Imagine Dragons. Thalia and Gabrien's story is something that you will see unfold somewhat in Breaking the Bonds, but since they aren't the focus, you won't see scenes like this in their entirety. I hope you like them, and this little story!_

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It was just beyond the border where Gavony became Kessig, where cultivated farm fields gave way to untamed wilds. Gabrien had spoken of his secret spot so often that his words sprang to life in Thalia's mind, breathing directions into her conscious.

She could see it all just as he had described so long ago. Just past her home province's edge was a crooked old tree with a big hollow. It overlooked a grassy slope where purple and blue wildflowers blossomed, ever defiant under the shroud of Innistrad's once-dark sky. But now the light had come back and the blooms stretched skyward, soaking in the radiance that Avacyn's return heralded.

Thalia followed the hill down into the forest, boots of soft hide sinking into the damp ground. She squeezed between the tightly-woven tree thickets and found herself in a small meadow, walled on three sides by greenery and the fourth by a small stream. This was the kind of beauty that a life between Thraben's gates had kept her from, and the sight of it all took her breath away.

It was a different vision, though, that sent her heart soaring. She glimpsed him there by the murmuring brook, his back nestled against a dead tree trunk and his bare feet dipped in the shallow water.

He was alive.

Even from her distance she could make out the tenseness of his jaw, the tightness in his broad shoulders. His face betrayed no real sign of emotion, but Thalia knew. He was lost in the sudden freeness of his mind.

"Gabrien!" she cried, rousing him from his trance. Thalia scampered down the knoll and flung her arms around his neck with enough force to nearly topple the both of them.

"Thalia," he breathed against the crook of her neck, his arms circling around her as if it were the natural thing for them to do. Relief seized him like a noose around his neck, a fate he had very nearly seen realized in his time spent under the curse.

"You're here." Her voice and her whole body trembled. She hid her face beneath his chin, her fingers pressing hard into his skin as reassurance that he was really there in her embrace. Months ago, when the world was darker than it had ever been and the bite of a werewolf stole her best friend from her, she would have questioned the mere possibility. "You're… you."

"Yeah," Gabrien murmured. He wasn't so sure. Scars gnarled his length. Discolored blotches pocked his face where villagers' torches sprayed him with embers. A gash on the underside of his wrist marked where the venom first met his bloodstream. Jagged lines streaked his back and chest, permanent reminders of an alpha whose fangs and claws were much bigger than his own. Even his feet were calloused and bruised, in their human state not so invulnerable to the thorns and rocks that dotted the ground.

It was his mind, though, that bore the brunt of it all. Could he really ever be the same again? He had maimed and killed so many in his feral blindness. He could still hear their screams high in the night sky, dying painfully as the pack howls rose above them all. He could still see their faces, distorted by terror and pain. They were people he knew: acquaintances and neighbors, customers from his father's shop, even a few he counted as friends. And he had murdered them all.

"I thought you would come and find me once the curse lifted," Thalia's words raised him out of his mind's prison, and he was grateful for the earthly tether.

"I wanted to," Gabrien said softly. He knitted his rough fingers amongst her soft blonde hair. They had been close before, but never like this. How much more of her had he never noticed? She smelled sweeter than any flower the meadow ever had to offer, and when the entirety of her was secured between his arms, she seemed remarkably small. "But how could I, Thalia? After everything I did, how could I face you?" He paused, and the freshness of it all smacked him again. "I shouldn't even be—"

Gabrien tried to shift away from her, but his attempted movement made her cling to him harder. "Stop that." Her eyes were soft, but her voice was harsh. "You didn't do any of this by choice. Even Avacyn knows that."

Avacyn. Now everyone surely knew her as the savior of their world. To Gabrien though, she was still his childhood crush's big sister. She was warm and kind, but she protected her only sibling with ferocity. If she knew the depth of his feelings for Thalia, he was sure she wouldn't be so keen on writing off his atrocities. Or letting him continue to breathe.

"How is she?"

Thalia nodded gently. "She's all right. Better. Sorin is with her."

He chuckled, a sound that hadn't come from his lips in some time. "I'm not certain the company of a vampire is much better than that of a demon."

"He's not like the others, you know."

"You trust him, then?"

"I trust the love he has for her."

Gabrien shook his head. He wasn't entirely convinced, but his mind was haunted by his own demons. There wasn't room in there for any more.

"And what about you?"

Thalia sighed, turning her face to better bury it against the safety his chest offered to her. How was she?

In a week's time she had regained her dead father and lost him again. She had witnessed the sister she thought had perished emerge from the Helvault alive—broken and bruised, but alive. She had learned of the existence of people called planeswalkers, and of faraway worlds that existed far beyond Innistrad, and that thought still made her head spin. She had promised Sorin that he would keep his abilities secret, but to herself she had to wonder: would anyone even believe her if she even tried to speak of it all?

How was she? She was a mess.

But at least now she had someone who felt as screwed up as she did.

"I'm better now," she whispered finally. She pressed a palm flat against his chest and shifted so that she could look into his eyes without sacrificing any of their closeness. "I'll be even better once you come home."

Home. Did he even have one of those anymore? He forced a hollow laugh.

"I can't go back," Gabrien said quietly. She would have never heard him if not for their proximity. "I don't know if my parents are still alive and I-I…" his words died on his breath. He stared into her dusty blue eyes for a moment and salvaged his strength. "I can't face those people. All of those people who lost people they loved because of me."

"That wasn't you, Gabrien," Thalia insisted, "That was this." Her hand found his wrist and she rubbed a circle over the mark the werewolf's bite had made. "You didn't give yourself freely. You were taken. A lot of people were."

"That doesn't make me any less of a monster," he argued, wrestling his hand free from hers. "Look at me, Thalia! Even as a human I still look like… like—"

"You still look like Gabrien to me," Thalia said softly. "You look handsome."

"That's easily said by the most beautiful creature in the world," he scoffed. A deep blush spread across her cheeks, and his expression became solemn. "Come on. You act as if you've never heard it before."

Thalia frowned. "Avacyn—Avacyn is beautiful. And strong. Not me."

"You were the one who broke the Helvault, Thalia," Gabrien said. He pushed himself off of the ground some, so that she was sitting in his lap and their faces were level. Hearing her say such a thing was like blasphemy to his ears. "You saved your sister."

"Sorin and Liliana saved my sister."

"Why won't you see yourself the way I do?"

"Why won't you?"

Gabrien wasn't sure what hit him harder, her words to his soul or his mouth on hers. He buried his hands in her hair and she ringed her arms around his neck, each securing the other in their embrace. They kissed harder, hungrier, until finally breath took precedence over passion and they gasped in unison.

"We should have tried that sooner," Thalia breathed, "before you got the dog breath."

He started to protest but her lips shushed his. They kissed for another moment and pulled away, looking into each other's eyes. How could it be that now when he was at his weakest, Gabrien felt the strongest? Such was the power she wielded over him. She made him feel whole when he was hopelessly broken, brave when he was scared out of his mind, and loved when he had nothing but hate left for himself.

"Gabrien," Thalia whispered, her voice still breathy, but more serious this time. She cupped his rough face with one of her dainty hands, his dark stubble prickling the soft flesh of her palm. "I think I've loved you from the moment I met you. I wish I had told you sooner. I'm sorry. I didn't realize it until you were gone and I thought I was never going to see you again and—"

He shushed her with a kiss to her lips, slower and more deliberate this time. "I love you, Thalia," Gabrien vowed against her mouth. "I would have told you sooner, too, but your sister scared the shit out of me."

They laughed together and Thalia swore the sun above them was burning brighter than she had ever seen it. She reclaimed her place on his chest and nestled herself against it, her fingers tightly gripping his ratted old shirt. "So you're coming home with me?"

Gabrien nodded, absently trailing a finger down her pale arm. "Is there another choice?"

"No," Thalia said, and then she grinned widely. "Besides, you need a bath. You smell."

"Thank you, Thalia," he smirked, his lips brushing over the top of her head. He untwisted his arms from around her middle and made to raise to his full height, but two delicate hands pushed with all their might against his chest, cementing him to the spot. "What? Weren't you just pleading with me to come home?"

"I wasn't pleading!" Thalia shot back. "I want to see what you look like as a wolf."

"Thalia—"

"Please."

"No."

"Please?" Thalia stared into the sanctuary of his dark eyes. It pained her to see such hurt staring back at her.

They were innocent once, the both of them. She knew that was something they would never get back, but she prayed it was something they could get past. For the first time in either of their lifetimes, there were bright horizons ahead for them and for their home. She wouldn't let the darkness take any more from them than it had already, and this was where she made her first stand. His other form was born of a curse, but now that Avacyn's blessing had washed over Innistrad, Thalia was sure it could be made into something more.

"I said I wasn't pleading before," she said, her voice not high and melodic like normal, but staid and low. "I'm pleading now. Please."

He held her gaze for a long moment, then lowered his brown eyes to the forest floor. How could he deny that face, those eyes, that voice? Gabrien sighed deeply. "All right," he mumbled, defeated by her wiles. She eased herself off of him and he sucked in a sharp breath, letting his eyes flutter shut.

Soon his body began to twist and change as fur replaced flesh. The transformation took seconds. Watching his limbs morph and expand was like watching an intricate waltz, and Thalia was almost disappointed that it ended so swiftly. Only almost, because the creature left in the aftermath was one of the most beautiful she had ever seen.

Gabrien's fur was a deep, rich brown, the exact shade of chocolate. His limbs were long and well-toned, muscle definition apparent even beneath his thick coat. He had long, silky ears that Thalia couldn't help but immediately run her hands over, and a soft nose that seemed as threatening as the one on Avacyn's spoiled white cat, Freya.

Of course, he was still built to be a predator, even in this blessed state. He was tall, standing at least a foot higher than in his human state. Several long teeth poked out from beneath his lips, and the claws that sprouted in place of his fingernails were thick enough to rip Thalia in two. She didn't fear him, though. In fact, she felt safer than she ever had.

"So Avacyn has her vampire and I have my werewolf," she mused happily, burying her fingers in the impossibly soft hair that coated his chest. Gabrien snorted in kind, and she knew without hearing him say a word. 'Werewolf' wasn't exactly a term of endearment, and even with the curse broken, it would still hold no favor amongst the people. "What if we called your kind something different?"

His ears perked slightly and Thalia took that as a sign of interest. She stared at him for a good minute, studying his features, taking in the beastliest and the most beautiful of them. She mouthed it to herself first, so quietly that even his sensitive ears seemed to question exactly what she had said. "Wolfir," Thalia repeated, louder this time. "Your fur—it's beautiful, and I thought it would make a good name."

Was she really trying to name an entire race of lupine creatures based on the aesthetic appeal of her love's fur? She grimaced on the inside and shook her head. "Never mind. It's stupid."

Gabrien carefully placed one of his long, clawed hands on top of hers and nudged his nose beneath her chin. She giggled and the sound made his heart rocket skyward. He drew away so that he could catch her eyes again, and nodded firmly. He liked the name. And more importantly, she liked him in this state.

"I love you, Gabrien," Thalia whispered, cupping his furred jaw with one of her delicate hands. He nuzzled it warmly, then licked her nose with a flick of his tongue. She squealed, snaking her arms around him and hiding her face in the warmth of his chest. They needed no more words than these.

They stayed entangled in each other, a mess of skin and fur, for hours neither of them cared to count. Words spoken between them were impossibly sparse: occasional quips and laughs from Thalia that Gabrien would respond to in soft grunts and sniffs.

The sun sank down and the moon climbed high, and for the first time in either of their lives, there was no need to run and hide from the terrors around them. There was just that moment, just them, their hearts and souls breathing as one and their demons finally vanquished.


End file.
